Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site proper.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!scgvaxd!felix!oliveb!hplabs!amdahl!proper!carl
From: carl@proper.UUCP (Carl Greenberg)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: US Senate bill on computer-transmitted obscenity
Message-ID: <104@proper.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Mar-86 07:15:39 EST
Article-I.D.: proper.104
Posted: Thu Mar  6 07:15:39 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Mar-86 00:30:09 EST
References: <228@bu-cs.UUCP> <279@hadron.UUCP> <32@gilbbs.UUCP>
Reply-To: carl@proper.UUCP (Carl Greenberg)
Organization: Lunatic Laboratories Unltd.
Lines: 63
Keywords: porn, child abuse, network

In article <32@gilbbs.UUCP> mc68020@gilbbs.UUCP (Tom Keller) writes:
>In article <279@hadron.UUCP>, jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao) writes:
>> [Note that I still haven't read the bill, and so it could be still
>> different from what the expanded notice makes of it.]
>
>                       S.1305
>
>		       A BILL
>
>To amend title 18, Unitd States Code, to establish criminal penalties for the
>   transmission by computer of obscene matter, or by computer or other means,
>   of matter pertaining to the sexual exploitation of children, and for other
>   purposes.
>
That mean that my big porno posters I have stored away in one of my directories
are ILLEGAL?  I think I'll post them to the net and see if I overthrow the
government.
>	    "(d) any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy writing, description,
>	picture, or other matter entered, stored, or transmitted by or in a
>	computer; or
I guess so.
>	"Whoever knowingly owns, offers, provides, or operates any computer
>	program or servide having a reasonable cause to believe that the 
>	computer program or service is being used to transmit in interstate
>	or foreign commerce any matter the carriage of which is herein made
>	unlawful; or";
Great.  So when I post them to Europe, even my sa gets in trouble.
>	"For purposes of this section -
>	   "(1) the term 'computer' means an electronic, magnetic, optical,
>	electrochemical, or other high-speed data processing device performing
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ack!  Confiscate my brain!  Give me a forebrain shampoo and a lobotomy of
the right hemisphere!  Go ahead!
>	logical, arithmetic, or storage functions, and includes any data
>	storage facility or communications facility directly related to or
>	oprating in conjunction with such device;
>	   "(2) the term 'computer program' means an instruction or statement
>	or a series of instructions or statements in a form acceptable to a
>	computer which permits the functioning of a computer system in a
>	manner designed to provide apporpriate products from such computer
>	system;
GET UP.  OPEN EYES.  WALK TO TERMINAL.  TURN TERMINAL ON.  LOG ON UNIX.
After all, it says my brain is a computer...  Gee, talk about loopholes...
>	   "(3) the term 'computer service' includes computer time, data
>	processing, and storage functions; and
Don't talk to me, you're wasting computer time!!!  And why aren't I getting
paid for doing mathematics in my head every time I figure out another goddamn
geometry proof?  Not to mention all they try to cram your head with in the
education process.
>	   "(4) the term 'computer system' means a set of related connected or
>	unconnected computers, computer equipment, devices and software.".
Hey, can one regard a town gossip network linked by phones as a kind of USENET
then?  According to this, we all carry computers in our heads and don't need
to be connected (though getting connected is fun...).
>	  "(5) 'computer' means an electronic, magnetic, optical, 
>	electrochemical, or other high-speed data processing device performing
Since when are any computers that don't operate on a basis of nerve networks
and require such strange substances as blood to keep going?  I wonder if anyone
has bothered to figure out that they have just declared humans (and anything
else with more brain than an earthworm) computers...
>	logical, artihmetic, or storage functions, and includes any data
>	storage facility directly related to or operating in conjunction with
>	such device.".